Kim Stanford, an associate professor with expertise in microbiology related to cattle and food-borne pathogens, said Japan and South Korea are far ahead of Canada in recycling food waste as feed.

WHY IT MATTERS: As global food demand grows, finding ways to redirect wasted food into livestock feed can help reduce input costs and strengthen the industry’s environmental social licence.

“Starbucks in Japan is recycling their coffee grounds. They’re splitting between feed and fertilizer streams, and they’ve been doing this that since 2010. The Japanese and the Koreans are way ahead of Canada when it comes to using food waste as feed,” said Kim Stanford, an associate professor at the U of L, during her Waste Not, Want Not: Food Waste as Cattle Feed presentation at the Alberta Beef Producers beef research showcase at the Alberta-based university.

“In Japan and South Korea, their regulatory agencies are promoting the recycling of food waste for feed, it’s very different from the CFIA.”

Where Canada’s food waste goes

Not all food waste can be captured for livestock. Roughly half has already reached consumers, and the CFIA maintains strict rules on what can be used in feed. But Stanford said the losses along the supply chain are substantial:

• 13 per cent of the waste happens on farms due to crops not being harvested or not having enough storage space.
• 20 per cent of the waste happens at processing.
• 12 per cent happens at retail stores with damaged goods and poor inventory.
• Five per cent is lost in transportation with refrigeration issues or spillage.

“But even with half of the half, that’s still billions of dollars of food waste that is readily available,” said Stanford.

Hemp and coffee grounds show promise

A survey led by Dr. Vicki Garcia found strong interest among hemp processors in using byproducts for livestock feed. While hemp is not currently on the CFIA approved feed list, Stanford said the concerns differ depending on the type of livestock.

For dairy cattle, studies have shown THC concentrations can transfer into milk at levels high enough to raise toxicity concerns for children. But for beef cattle, trials using 20 per cent hemp seed cake on a dry-matter basis over a 111-day feeding period showed positive results.

“Only trace amounts of THC and derivatives were detected in the fat and none in the lean part. Concentrations of THC in the fat were so low as to not be judged as food safety concerns,” said Stanford.

“A little extra bonus, they showed markers for reduced stress. There’s not a sign that they also have the munchies, but definitely exceptionally chill cattle.”

Coffee grounds are another ingredient not yet on the CFIA approved list, despite large volumes going to landfill daily. At 12 to 20 per cent protein by dry weight, they are also high in fibre and fat. Studies have shown that when coffee grounds make up no more than 20 per cent of the overall diet, there is no reduction in animal performance.

“The high fat concentration in coffee grounds; it’s a consideration. They need to be fed fairly quickly after they were received — you don’t want the fat to go rancid,” Stanford said. “But looks to me like coffee grounds are mixable in with the rest of the diet without the need for extra processing.”

Turning grocery waste into silage

Discarded fruits and vegetables require more processing before they can be used as feed. Stanford noted that appearance standards drive significant waste — roughly 50 per cent of carrots, for example, are deemed too ugly for human consumption. In one study, two types of carrot silage were tested: one mixed with oat hulls and the other with chopped straw. Early results showed the chopped straw blend performing best in sheep trials.

On a larger scale, a program run by Loop Resources — started by a Canadian farmer in 2017 — has matched farmers with retail grocers, keeping 148 million kilograms of food waste out of landfills and contracting with more than 4,000 farmers who collect waste on scheduled pickup days and feed it to livestock.

“You never know exactly what you’re going to get or how much, which is why we wanted to see how easy it would be to turn this grocery food waste into silage,” said Stanford. “With the silage, you can stockpile food waste instead of having to bring it bring it and feed it almost as soon as it get it home.”

In a grocery store waste study, no foods that had gone too far with mould were included. The silage was blended with drier bread products and a variety of fruits and vegetables, targeting a 38 per cent dry matter threshold. Initial samples showed significant yeasts and moulds on basic microbiological plate counts.

But after 60 days of fermentation, the moulds and yeasts were undetectable. The mycotoxin Mycophenolic acid, an immune system suppressor, was also undetectable after being present in initial counts.

“Converting the food waste to silage is helpful for dealing with spoilage organisms. Even at day zero, the concentration of Mycophenolic acid was approximately 20 times lower than is typical for regular grass silage, so it wasn’t enough to really be a concern,” said Stanford, who recommended the approach for smaller operations looking to connect with local grocery stores on food waste recycling.

“From food waste, this will likely not be a food safety concern for feeding your cattle based on our mycotoxin results. But it’s a good idea to keep your eyes on that, depending on what you’re feeding.”

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Within this landscape, linebreeding is often presented as a thoughtful, strategic way to reinforce excellence, while inbreeding carries a sharper, more cautionary edge of the proliferation of genetic diseases and the loss of health.

Biologically, however, the distinction is mostly semantic. Both increase homozygosity, reduce genetic diversity and concentrate not only desirable traits but also hidden vulnerabilities that may take generations to appear.

Recognizing this truth allows us to discuss breeding practices clearly and safeguard the horses that inherit our choices.

How linebreeding works

Classically, inbreeding refers to matings between very close relatives such as full siblings, half-siblings, or parents and offspring.

Linebreeding slows the rhythm, repeating the influence of a notable ancestor further back in the pedigree, such as a shared grandparent for both sire and damn.

The language is gentler and the tone more palatable, but the mechanism is the same: every repetition increases homozygosity. Over generations, linebreeding quietly concentrates latent weaknesses that only become visible when the horses themselves, not the papers, reveal the cost.

Studbooks established in the 18th and 19th centuries placed lineage at the heart of breeding culture, and modern reproductive technologies now extend that influence far beyond natural limits.

Reproductive technology amplifies problem

Global semen distribution, frozen semen and embryo transfer allow the genetics of a few high-profile sires to saturate entire populations at a pace no natural breeding system could ever sustain.

Their traits — desirable and deleterious alike — spread rapidly through the gene pool, contracting genetic diversity as predictability increases and resilience diminishes.

Used thoughtfully, these tools can preserve rare bloodlines; used uncritically, they become engines of genetic narrowing that quietly reshape the biological landscape of entire breeds.

Four categories of genetic vulnerability

Across breeds and bloodlines, four major “targets” of genetic vulnerability appear repeatedly.

First, the connective-tissue disorders — HERDA in Quarter horses, WFFS in Warmbloods, CPL in draft breeds and the broader spectrum of collagen fragilities found in Friesians.

Second are the muscle-enzyme and contractility defects such as HYPP, PSSM1, MYH1 myopathy and GBED, which cluster predominantly in heavily muscled Quarter horse lines shaped by a handful of influential sires.

Third are immune-system vulnerabilities, most famously SCID in Arabians.

Finally, intense selection for discipline-specific traits can produce horses with increasingly reactive nervous systems or sensitive temperaments, which is an inherited fragility of a different kind.

These categories represent consistent genetic bottlenecks where repeated ancestry, concentrated selection and human ambition converge to narrow resilience.

Often, the barn sees these patterns long before science names them.

Owners and practitioners notice reproductive struggles, unexplained fragilities, metabolic crashes, behavioural issues or horses that fail to “hold together” despite excellent care.

By the time a DNA test is developed, the mutation has often already threaded through celebrated pedigrees, carried forward by seemingly successful members of the breed.

Name value fallacy

Pedigree culture encourages a particular kind of logic: repeated “good” names signal quality.

Seeing an influential ancestor appear multiple times in a pedigree is often celebrated as a badge of honour. Yet the story we tell ourselves about this pattern is misleading.

Repetition is not evidence of exceptional quality; it is an early warning of decreased genetic variation. What tradition labels as linebreeding is, biologically, a form of inbreeding softened by language and commercial polish.

Concentrating ancestry does not simply “fix type” or “lock in quality.” It narrows the genetic landscape and magnifies vulnerabilities that would otherwise remain safely diluted.

What COI and ROH actually tell breeders

Modern genomic tools strip away euphemisms.

COI (coefficient of inbreeding) estimates the probability that a horse inherited two copies of the same gene from a shared ancestor. ROH (runs of homozygosity) reveal long, identical stretches of DNA, the genomic fingerprint of a bottleneck.

In Friesians, high ROH reflects a small founding population, a closed studbook and aesthetic selection.

Certain Quarter horse subpopulations — descendants of stallions such as Impressive or Poco Bueno — show similar patterns.

Together, COI and ROH reveal the truth hidden by pedigree’s traditions: repeated ancestors are indicators of increased biological risk.

Yet genetic vulnerability is not destiny.

Disease emerges where heritage meets environment: processed feed, confinement, intensive training, metabolic strain and extreme selection pressure can bring hidden weaknesses to the surface.

HYPP attacks, metabolic collapse and sudden aortic ruptures are events shaped by inheritance, management and intensive training regimes.

The deeper truth is ethical as well as biological.

When phenotype becomes fashion and sport results dictate breeding choices, the cost is paid by the horse.

Balance is not merely lost — it is bred out.

How breed associations manage risk behind closed doors

Across breed associations, genetic issues are often managed quietly, internally, long before the public is aware.

Testing requirements, restricted matings or discreet removal of certain lines occur behind closed doors. From the outside, the breed appears healthy; inside, risk continues to intensify since the general public is unaware of the risks selected pedigrees raise.

Linebreeding is simply inbreeding that the industry labels as acceptable. The euphemism protects human interests, not equine well-being.

The central question remains: are we breeding to glorify a few celebrated bloodlines or to safeguard the long-term vitality, soundness and integrity of the horse?

The answer is not in the pedigree book or the sale catalogue. It is written in the living body of the horse, carrying the legacy of our choices, one generation at a time.

By shifting from name-collecting to true genetic diversity, breeders can move beyond the façade of linebreeding toward practices that protect the health, resilience and integrity of the horse for generations to come.

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The two-year, $250,000 Veterinary Student Recruitment and Retention Pilot Grant Program is funded through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP) and targets practices that provide livestock veterinary services in communities with a current or anticipated demand for veterinarians.

Alberta’s rural veterinary shortage

The demand for veterinarians across Alberta is high, but the shortage is most acute in rural communities.

A 2021 report from the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association and Alberta Veterinary Technologist Association found the provincial vacancy rate for veterinary positions sits at roughly 17 per cent — rising to nearly 19 per cent in rural areas — compared to a provincial average of about three per cent across all jobs. The report estimated Alberta will need more than 1,600 new veterinarians by 2035.

“Rural and mixed-practice veterinarians are essential to the well-being of our livestock and the sustainability of our agriculture sector,” said RJ Sigurdson, Alberta’s Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.

Lethbridge Polytechnic is also addressing the pipeline with a new pre-veterinary medicine diploma launching in fall 2026.

How to apply

Eligible clinics can apply now for the 2026 intake. Applications for 2027 will open next year. The program is centred around practices that provide livestock veterinary services and demonstrate a current or anticipated need for veterinarians.

The Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year, $3.5-billion federal-provincial-territorial investment (2023–2028) supporting competitiveness, innovation and resiliency in Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector.

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The two-year science program prepares students for advanced studies in veterinary medicine through coursework in animal genetics, biochemistry, anatomy, physiology and nutrition, with hands-on lab experience throughout.

Transfer pathway to U of C veterinary medicine

A transfer agreement with the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine allows students who complete a 10-course requirement to apply directly to the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program.

Career pathways for pre-vet grads

Graduates also have several other pathways:

• Continue into Lethbridge Polytechnic’s Bachelor of Agricultural Sciences post-diploma degree
• Pursue the MCAT for medical school admission
• Enter the workforce as a laboratory assistant, animal researcher, livestock technician or animal nutrition consultant
• Rural vet clinics in Alberta are also offering paid summer placements through a new SCAP-funded grant program

Apply for fall 2026

For more information or to apply, visit lethpolytech.ca/pre-vet. Prospective students can also attend Lethbridge Polytechnic’s Winter Open House on Sunday, March 22, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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Finalists will be selected this spring, with up to two winners to be announced in 2028, who will each receive up to $1 million to scale their solutions.

Leduc, a sheep and beef farmer with a PhD in animal science from Université Laval who completed post-graduate work with McGill and Lactanet, kept running into the same issue: Farmers are being encouraged to adopt best management practices for forages, but few had the data needed to know whether those changes actually worked.

“Forage systems are long-term systems,” he said.

“If you make a mistake in seeding, you might not see the impact for a long time. If you choose the wrong bull, it’s two years before you fully understand the outcome.”

That makes it harder to connect management decisions to results — and even harder to justify change. The core problem, Leduc said, is data.

“In forage systems, data is not collected in a standardized way. Producers want answers right away. But to get analytics, you need data — and in forage, that takes time,” he said, adding this gap limits progress not only on productivity, but also on greenhouse gas reductions.

Enter Mon Système Fourrager, an integrated platform that connects data “from soil to animal,” letting users log and import field management data, harvest information, forage and silage analyses, and observations such as winter survival or stand density.

Leduc also acquired and is modernizing EweManage, a sheep and goat management software program, and is developing Agri-Doc, a module for agronomists to easily log information during farm visits, generate reports required for provincial support programs and transcribe voice notes directly into structured records. The goal is to make data capture faster and less burdensome.

“Data collection is like accounting —rationally, it’s good. Emotionally, it’s boring.”

Maxime Leduc

He is also experimenting with mobile chatbot interfaces that will allow producers to ask questions and receive insights based on their own Excel-based records.

According to Leduc, helping producers measure yields, track forage analyses and link feed quality to animal performance will support more precise feeding strategies that can improve digestibility, reduce methane intensity and increase overall farm efficiency.

Leduc emphasized that practices that reduce emissions often also improve profitability — but only if producers can see and measure the impact.

“You need to recognize you have a problem, know the possible solutions, evaluate them and then monitor the results,” he said.

“Without data, you can’t do that.”

Rather than marketing directly to individual producers one by one, Leduc is focusing on partnerships with forage labs and agronomists who already need to collect and interpret data. If advisers adopt the platform, producers are more likely to follow.

He currently has a few hundred users of his technologies, mostly in Quebec, where he works closely with a network of producers, agronomists, agricultural organizations like the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association, and forage labs.

Next milestones include launching the agronomists’ tool and hopefully advancing to the final round of the methane challenge, which would provide an additional grant of up to $500,000 to support further development and testing of his system. He’s also received funding from Investissement Quebec.

His longer-term vision is straightforward: keep the business viable and help producers become more profitable while reducing their environmental footprint. The forage sector’s future depends on closing the data gap, he says.

“The answer lies in accessing and leveraging the data producers already collect, but don’t use fully,” he said.

The post From soil to stall: the digital platform closing the data gap in methane reduction appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The situation is the same in both Canada and the United States, heard producers attending the Canadian Bison Association convention.

WHY IT MATTERS: Consumer demand for bison has soared, but supply could dwindle in the next few years as a number of Canadian producers walk away from the industry.

CBA executive director Scott Yule said producers over the past five years have been taking advantage of the high prices that have moved in tandem with, but above, beef.

“We haven’t seen a lot of people (who) are just leaving the business for the sake of leaving the business, but they’re retiring and selling out,” he said.

The biggest challenge facing the Canadian industry right now is having enough animals to support demand that has held up since climbing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Slaughter numbers to the end of August in Canada were already higher than in 2024 and are on track to be among the highest in the past 10 years.

Fewer bison are moving south. Yule said in some years up to 80 per cent of animals have been exported. This year is down quite significantly.

National Bison Association (NBA) executive director Jim Matheson said the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture numbers show young bulls are averaging US$5.01 per pound hanging weight.

“That’s the highest bull price we’ve seen in about a decade on the rail, so prices are very good for producers right now,” he said.

“Of course, this is all related to the supply shortage we’re currently experiencing. By and large, this is largely due to too much consumer demand for our product, which is a great problem to have.”

Young heifers are about $4.75 per pound.

Matheson said bison typically run about twice the value of a beef carcass, but that hasn’t been the case the past couple of years. In some cases, bison producers are transitioning to beef production to make some money instead of the other way around.

His numbers showed U.S. federally inspected slaughter down 27 per cent over 2024, as of September. The effects of COVID demand saw slaughter increase by seven per cent from 2020 to 2021, 10 per cent from 2021-22, five per cent in 2022-23 and two per cent last year.

“This year we will probably contract for the first time in a long time for our federal numbers. This does not include our state inspected numbers,” Matheson said.

He said the U.S. will process about 25 per cent fewer bison in 2025 due to lack of supply.

Matheson also estimated 33 per cent fewer bison will move south from Canada this year.

High land costs, the cost to borrow money and the supply crunch are all affecting the sector. He said agriculture is a cycle, though, and the supply and demand balance will return at some point.

Bison move without tariffs under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. Matheson said the NBA has been meeting with high level staffers at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, the USDA and state officials, where it has found strong support for continuing the agreement.

CBA president Brian Arnold said the threat of U.S. tariffs at the start of the year created much uncertainty.

“I think we saw a lot of people push a lot of animals, trying to beat the tariffs, and maybe they were selling animals that maybe they would not have done if the threat of the tariffs wasn’t there,” he said in an interview.

“That reduced our herd numbers significantly as people were trying to maybe beat the economic impact of the tariffs that ended up never coming.”

Arnold said both associations work together but also need to protect their own interests. That’s why more animals are being sold and processed in Canada.

He expects producers will begin to realize they need to hang on to a few more animals and start to increase herd sizes again.

A big concern for the entire industry is whether the federal government realizes the value of agriculture and the fact that producers are feeding people, Arnold said.

There should be help, perhaps in the form of tax incentives, to drive people to farming and ranching, he said.

The CBA has been focusing more on its relationship with governments, he added.

Yule said CBA membership dropped from 488 in 2023 to 448 in 2025.

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The fleece and conformation of Canadian alpacas impressed an American judge at the Canadian Western Agribition Alpaca Halter Show and Fleece competitions.

Beverly Brehm has been a certified judge since 2019 and was particularly appreciative of the care that Canadians show for conformation, such as legs, ears, mouth, and bite, noting she didn’t see a single incorrect bite.

Read: More Canadian Western Agribition coverage.

“It means that they’re placing a lot of value on the things that are very important,” Brehm said.

“Like the eating aspect, being able to graze correctly, get the food in the alpaca’s mouth so that it can grow, and that’s where that correct bite is really, really important.”

Cathy Merkley, an alpaca owner and judge for more than 20 years, chalks this up to the seriousness of alpaca breeders, who she said are keen to continue educating themselves.

“We know good conformation, and so we fixed that early on in our breeding programs,” she said.

“Everybody breeds for correct conformation. If he doesn’t have correct confirmation, he’s out. Like, it’s just simple. So we have that fixed in our herd, really.”

While judging the fleece competition, Brehm engaged in a discussion about breeding capabilities with some of the volunteers. One area that particularly fascinated her is Canadians’ ability to rapidly improve fleece length and continue to produce a very long stapling length.

“In the ‘A’ fleeces that I was looking at, which is the juvenile fleeces, their first fleece after birth, they have a massive stapling, which is not something that we normally see in that age group in the U.S.,” she said.

“And so some of the conversations that we were having was, is it something that they’re trait selecting for or are they doing it out of necessity? Because it is quite a bit colder here, and in order for that animal to survive in the winter months, it needs to have enough fibre for it to stay warm and survive outside.”

Environmental influences may be the most unique difference between Canadian and American alpaca trait selection.

Another difference has been the judging system. Canada weighs fleece as 60 per cent and conformation for 40 per cent, while the United States weighs it 50-50.

Fleece is judged on traits important for processing, such as uniformity of microns (the fineness across the fleece), crimp definition and uniformity and uniformity of colour and length. Points can be lost due to management issues such as improper skirting, weathered fleece and vegetation or dirt.

The 60-40 weighting approach affected placing decisions because when deciding on first place and weighing two animals, the choice comes down to fleece traits.

”I think it probably happened in about three or four of the classes where I really had to make sure that I was focusing on the fleece trait specifically,” Brehm said.

“Versus, ‘yeah, this guy looks great in conformation, but he just doesn’t have everything packed in it.’ So that was a little bit of a difference, besides Canadians having red for the first place ribbons.”

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Supplies are expected to remain tight for at least the next two years, forcing meatpackers like Tyson and rivals JBS USA and Cargill to pay steep prices for cattle to process into steaks and hamburgers.

Beef prices have set records due to low supplies and strong demand, raising costs for consumers. U.S. President Donald Trump said last month that he was working to bring down beef prices.

Tyson said it will also reduce operations at a beef plant in Amarillo, Texas, to a single, full-capacity shift, affecting about 1,700 workers. The company will increase production at other facilities to meet customer demand, according to a statement.

“Tyson Foods recognizes the impact these decisions have on team members and the communities where we operate,” the statement said.

— Reporting by Tom Polansek

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“Canadian horses, swine and ruminants returning to Canada will not be able to enter Canada after a stay in a VS-infected state in the last 21 days,” stated a CFIA release.

WHY IT MATTERS: Transmitted by black flies, sand flies and biting midges, VSV resembles the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, causing mild fever and blister or crusting lesions inside the mouth, on the ears, lips, nose, udder, sheath, and above the hooves in horses, ruminants, swine, and members of the llama and deer families.

In October, the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) confirmed VSV outbreaks on two farms in Arizona involving horses. The facilities also housed cattle that were not clinically affected.

The virus has an incubation period of two to eight days, and full recovery occurs in three to four days. However, it can affect milk production and lead to market losses for live animals, meat, and animal genetics.

The NVSL release states no livestock were moved on or off the affected premises, and biosecurity measures, along with vector control, are in place to reduce the spread. A 14-day quarantine starting from the last affected animal’s lesion onset is also implemented.

Canadian animals with a Canadian health certificate can return within three days of the USDA declaring their host state affected by VSV, provided they are inspected by the CFIA POE (port of entry) vet.

Otherwise, the release said, the Canadian health certificate is null and void, and animals from a VSV-infected state will require a minimum 21-day quarantine in a non-infected state before they can be exported to Canada.

The CFIA, in partnership with the USDA, has arranged special accommodations for animals imported for Canadian livestock events such as the Royal Winter Fair, Agribition, the Calgary Stampede and horse-specific events at Spruce Meadows and Thunderbirds.

“U.S.-origin and returning Canadian horses and ruminants that qualify for this exception are required to obtain a CFIA import permit and a USDA health certificate with the USDA addendum for VSV,” stated the CFIA release.

The last outbreak of VSV in the U.S. occurred from May 2023 through January 2024 and affected 319 premises across California, Nevada, and Texas.

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Neubauer currently lives on the family farm homestead, north of the hamlet of Irvine. Her husband is Mark, and they have two adult children: Logan and Evie.

The couple’s farm is mostly dryland acres, although they do have some irrigated acres as well. They grow grains, oilseeds, pulses and hay, as well as forage for their cow-calf operation.

Neubauer grew up on a small family farm near Medicine Hat, where the family had cows and horses and made hay.

“I think the deep roots I have for the industry today developed when I was young,” she said.

When she was a teenager, Neubauer taught riding lessons to young people. She loved watching the children connect with the horses and learn to work with them.

“It’s really empowering, powerful for a child to be on top of a 1,000-pound beast and be in the driver’s seat. I loved that. I realized through the experience that I enjoyed working with children and opening doors for them,” she said.

In 1992, Neubauer had the honour of being the Medicine Hat Stampede Princess.

“That was an amazing experience and helped shape the person I’ve become,” she said.

Neubauer went on to become an ambassador for Medicine Hat. As part of the role, she spent a lot of time going to schools, talking about the role of the Stampede Princess, and answering questions from school children. She also had different opportunities to teach people about rodeo.

“That’s where I cut my teeth talking with folks about something that was really important, and that I was really passionate about, and seeing they had a lot of interest in it as well,” she said.

“This was probably where the seed originally got planted, that has really grown into a real dedication and passion for industry and advocacy and sharing the story and helping people understand a whole lot more about where their food comes from.”

Neubauer said the experience of being the Medicine Hat Stampede Princess solidified her love of working with young people and helped influence her path going forward.

She studied early child education at Medicine Hat College, learned sign language and worked as an interpreter for a deaf child and for children who had delayed speech and language acquisition. Neubauer specialized in working with kids with developmental delays, providing programming and play therapy support. She also helped refer kids to specialists who could help them with their occupational therapy, physical therapy and doctor’s appointments.

“It’s a great, big complicated system. If you have a child with some needs, it can be hard to navigate. My key role, and what I enjoyed most, was providing that navigation and recommendations for families, just to make their journey a little less bumpy,” she said.

Through her work, Neubauer noticed how many kids lived in an overly sanitized world, where they just played with plastic and avoided messy play.

“They didn’t have authentic experiences to connect with plants and animals and the environment. Because of that, they can become more averse to engaging with that,” she said.

Neubauer saw an opportunity to create meaningful purpose for children, offering desensitization to some of the things they were averse to in a natural environment.

“It provided motivation. It was literally magic once we had a chance to bring kids to the farm,” she said.

She had a good friend who was a kindergarten teacher, and they conducted the first class visit to the Neubauer farm. Neubauer set up activities that fit into the kindergarten curriculum about farms and got the children out in a natural environment.

“The kids were delighted because it was real, it was something they knew a little bit of information about, so they could apply prior knowledge. They were free to explore, and they had a great time,” she said.

“It was something that seemed so simple, but was so beneficial.”

After the first visit, Neubauer began to create programming that was appropriate for preschoolers all the way up to Grade 4. All the programming connected back to the curriculum. Full scale farm tours began in 2005, and eventually over 3,000 kids a year visited the farm.

“I reduced my hours at work, so I was able to dedicate more time to this project, and it was so well received by educators in the community that it kind of grew its own legs and took off in so many directions,” she said.

This program became known as the Growing Minds program.

Once the visits became more frequent, Neubauer and her husband did an entire renovation of their farmyard so it was safe and gave a good flow for tours. The farm had pigs, goats, sheep, laying hens and bottle calves.

The program was extremely successful but had to shut down in 2020 because of COVID-19. Over 22,000 children had visited the farm since 2005. During the shutdown, Neubauer took some time to refocus.

Neubauer decided to reach out to Prairie Rose Public Schools Division to create a new kind of programming. In 2021, the Irvine School Agriculture Discovery Centre was created.

The farm is on the playground of Irvine School and is a fully functional farm of about 200×200 feet. The school is a kindergarten to Grade 9 school, with about 400 students who are a mix of urban and rural.

“It’s just become a special place for kids to take their agriculture learning to a whole new level,” she said.

The farm has feeder steers, bottle calves, sheep, goats, hogs and laying hens. There is a vermicomposting system, a large garden, an apiary and a greenhouse.

“It’s a real highlight for the school,” she said. “As a rural school division, we’re always looking to try and maintain our enrollment numbers, and this has proven to bring kids from neighbouring communities to attend the school here. It’s special.”

The farm has a student board of directors, who make and guide decisions that happen on the farm. This board is made up of Grade 9 students, so there are a lot of junior high students that are up and comers learning how to operate the farm as well.

The program runs from April to October, and all the production animals are sold in the fall, so the school doesn’t have to deal with winter farming.

This year, they held a fall festival which was planned by the students and combined a welcome-back barbecue for the families. The event included old-time games like sack races and egg and spoon races, as well as an auction for the production animals. The hogs had already been processed, so the school was able to sell their meat.

“With the tremendous support of rural communities, we raised to date, close to $200,000 for this project. And then working with Prairie Rose, which is an amazing school division, every penny of that turns around and is invested with creating agriculture education opportunities for kiddos across the region,” she said.

Neubauer also created AgPro, a program for students from Grade 7 to 9, and that has been woven into an optional class called Career and Technology Foundations, within the Prairie Rose division.

This class gives students the opportunity to try a sample of real-life jobs. When students sign up for AgPro, they have a six-week block of time where they go out in the community and learn about how an industry works, and what possible job opportunities might exist.

“We’re doing everything we can to get kids thinking about agriculture, because agriculture is a motivation of the heart. And if you don’t have that motivation, you’re not going to stick in this industry for a while,” she said.

One of Neubauer’s goals is to help young people in the industry learn and connect to various aspects of agriculture.

“We have to create a paradigm shift for kids, so that when they think ag, they think differently about it and see that there actually is the spot where they could sit and they don’t have to inherit a township of land to be a farmer. Truly, the supporting careers in this industry are what we need moving forward. That’s going to be the people who can support the technology that continues to be developed. What also is super important is that kids need to develop an understanding of what they’d like to do while they’re still in junior high, so they make sure they take the right courses in high school,” she said.

“Moving forward with intention is probably one of the best things we can do for our kids.”

Neubauer has also served as a board member of the Seven Persons Grazing Association and played a pivotal role in establishing the Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce Education Task Force, where she advocates for policy highlighting the importance of agriculture education. In 2020, Alberta’s agriculture minister appointed her as a founding director of Results Driven Agriculture Research. Neubauer is also a frequently sought after speaker.

The Neubauers have won numerous awards for their farm, and Neubauer has won many awards for her achievements.

Currently, the Neubauers are partnering with Prairie Rose Public Schools to oversee project design and program development for the launch of a program for high school students called the South Alberta School of Agriculture (SASA). SASA will be a premier institution to equip students with knowledge, skills and experience necessary to flourish in an agriculture career and grow the workforce of tomorrow.

Prairie Rose School Division’s board of trustees nominated Neubauer for the Alberta Order of Excellence.

“The application was sent in and then from there, the most amazing part of it was when the Lieutenant Governor phoned, and we actually were so fortunate to host Her Honour and His Honour two years ago at our farm,” she said.

Neubauer said winning the award was incredible.

“It’s the highest honour that you can receive in the province of Alberta, but to receive that from someone who is more than a figurehead, who is an acquaintance and a friend was very meaningful as well,” she said.

Even though she has been awarded Alberta’s top honour, Neubauer is not finished yet.

At the beginning of October, Prairie Rose Schools made the official announcement that they will be constructing the Yuill School of Agriculture, which will equip students with the theory and learning that they need to excel in the agriculture industry. The school is an experiential collegiate that specializes in agriculture to create the workforce that agriculture will need now and in the future.

The Yuill family foundation donated 76 acres of land between the city of Medicine Hat and Dunmore and has provided funding to build the structure. Prairie Rose School Division received funds from Alberta Education to build the campus. Neubauer and her husband are collaborating with everyone else to ensure the programming is relevant to the needs of agriculture. Mark is overseeing the design of the project and construction of the facilities.

“We’re super excited for this region that we’re going to be able to allow for students to learn about agriculture locally, so they can stay in the region and can hopefully continue with careers that will support the future of industry for southeast Alberta. I’m on a journey, and I’m by no means done my work yet,” she said.

The Alberta Order of Excellence was established in 1979 and is the province’s highest honour. There are 229 inductees in the order, and they are selected because of their lifetime contribution to the province.

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